Kyle Swartz is the new Associate Editor in the Beverage Group, working on Cheers, StateWays and Beverage Dynamics. We wanted to get to know him a little better, so we cornered him and asked the following quick-fire questions.

How did you find out about our company? What drew you to this job?

I found out about this company via indeed.com during my job search. What drew me to this job was the potential to work with both digital and print media, especially the latter — and, of course, the opportunity to learn more about, and become active in, the beverage alcohol industry.

What’s your favorite part of working in the beverage group?

My favorite part so far has been the opportunity to take charge of the magazines’ social media accounts. It’s an area of media I’m very interested in, and taking on this responsibility has been both a challenge and a pleasure.

What’s the best experience you’ve had so far working here?

The best experience so far is, without a doubt, the press trip I just returned from, which took place in Sydney, Australia. The city was wonderful, filled with extremely nice people, who returned my brand new iPhone within 10 minutes of me leaving it behind near the Opera House. Bacardi put on a fantastic event there, and I learned much about global cocktail culture.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Outside of work I enjoy community service (being a member of Rotaract, the young adult version of Rotary), sports, reading, writing, and seeing friends. I am a bookworm, and a die-hard Boston sports fan.

Favorite movie of all time?

It’s difficult to pick just one, so I’ll list two: The Usual Suspects, and No Country For Old Men (which is also a great book, highly recommended).

What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?

We sat down with Amy Collins in the Plymouth office (before the craziness of the move began) to get to know what makes her tick both at work and at home.

How did you get your start in the industry?

I went to the University of North Dakota and studied marketing. I started my career as a sales person at a radio station and then I moved to the cities—I had been living in Grand Forks right after I graduated—and worked for ad agencies for about six or seven years, and then I was recruited by Penton Media. I worked for them and then I worked for the Business Journal for a little bit and then came here.

So Penton was your first step into the publishing side of things. Was it a big change?

When I first interviewed with the Penton group publisher, I was like, “Oh, I totally screwed that interview up, I’ll never get this job.” And then they called me and said, “Why don’t you come to Cleveland and interview here.” So I flew there and spent the whole day with the person who was going to be my boss. And I was like, “I can’t work for this person,” because he was kind of a snake-oil salesman; like a hit ‘em hard, hard knocks kind of guy. So when I was leaving Cleveland, I was like, “Look around, ‘cause you’re never coming back here, it’s not gonna work, we’re just not gonna fit.” They called and offered me the job… and then I turned them down. They hired me anyway, and I ended up working for them and I loved my job.

And EPG is obviously your favorite of all your jobs, right?

I actually have loved all my jobs. I just really enjoy what I do. I like marketing a lot, and my favorite thing to do is work with a client and figure out something that’s really cool that you can do for them that helps them, but also finding revenue opportunities for the company. I love working for the company, and I’ve really enjoyed working on the beverage side, which is obviously a brand new market for me, so that’s good.

What’s the best part about your job?

To be honest, the best part about my job is kidding around with everybody here. I think we have an exceptional team—teams, I should say—and for me, I think it’s probably just the personal aspect of hanging out with really fun people and doing really good work that you can be proud of.

What takes up most of your time at work?

I think I’m very project-oriented. On beverage, for example, we just did our Growth Brand Awards; we’ve redesigned two of the three beverage books; Chris Gerber and the team developed the three websites, and I was a part of a lot of that; we redid the e-newsletters, three of them. But then I work on Marine Dealer Conference, I get involved with the sales process [for Boating Industry] if there’s anything I can help with, Top 100 is the same way, for Powersports Business I’ve been a person that’s been directly involved with Powersports Business Institute… a lot of different things! I wish I had more time, to be honest. I’d get a lot more done.

What’s your favorite way to unwind?

On the lake, on a boat. That’s an easy one for me. I love being on the water, even since I was a little kid. My dad was a boat dealer for a short time and my mom had a marina at the same time.

Do you have any pets?

I have a cat named Hazel. I had a cat named Oliver and he was killed by a coyote in August or September. It was live by the sword, die by the sword with that cat. He liked to go out and beat up other cats or something.

What do you usually do with your free time?

I have three boys, they are 18, eight and five, so I spend a ton of time with my kids. It’s almost all kid time. One of my favorite things to do is watch my kids play sports. And I’m always talking about kids and jokes and stuff like that… I guess I’m not much of an introvert. I’m sure it gets me in trouble a bit, too.

What’s your favorite day of the week and why?
I really like Thursdays because it’s Friday-Eve. Thursday is kind of the hipster of the weekdays, no one really recognizes how awesome it is until later (Sorry, millennial joke.)

Name some of your hobbies.
I enjoy writing (surprise), reading, singing, tennis, running (more tolerate than enjoy), watching movies, hanging out with friends and spending time with family. I’m also learning to cook and I like spending time outside in the summer.

Name the most interesting place you’ve traveled to.
When I was 18, I traveled to Ireland and kissed the Blarney Stone for good luck. I’d love to go back again someday. For now, I’m staying stateside and saving up for the next travel-bug trip.

If you could have one super power, what would it be?
Nerd alert: Huge x-men fan. I’d be like Storm and manipulate the weather with my mind. Or Elsa from Frozen. It’s a toss-up.

Redesigns

With the Oxcyon sites now migrated to the WordPress and utilizing responsive themes, It’s time to turn back and do the same with the GoPublish-based sites.

Google recently has changed it’s algorithms to prefer mobile friendly sites for mobile users, and to continue reach those users, we need to update our sites to match. Because the time investment in upgrade our current themes is significant, we’ve decided to instead move to a new default theme and work from there.

As the site is being redesigned, it will also be moved to a central network (ehlertmedia.com) of WordPress sites, so that the websites can share information and logins between each other.

An initial meeting has been held with someone from each editorial groups to go through the process as well as begin the discussion about content structure and style. There will be follow up meetings with each of the groups as we begin the redesign for the site.

The goal is to get all of our sites migrated to the central network with a new mobile template as soon as possible, with things being finished by the end of the third quarter.

Marketing

DoubleClick

Ad targeting will be seeing improvements in the coming months. To help feed targeting data into DoubleClick (Pages, Categories, Tags), I’ve created a plugin to manage our website’s ad positions, as well as feed data into DoubleClick: DFP Ad Manager.

The plugin can be dropped on top of our current ad positions, and integrated with the websites over time. It is still in active development, with plans to add targeting to individual ad positions and improve our overall marketing strategy with help from the sales team.

Google Tag Manager

The sites will also be integrated with Google Tag Manager, making it easier for anyone to upload new tags to the site for remarketing/retargeting services, without needing new code to be pushed to the server by the digital team.

Google Tag Manager can be used to manage Google Analytics, Quantcast, comScore, LinkedIn, AdRoll, and any custom tags, as well.

Email

Creating enewsletters for many of our brands is a very manual process, requiring a lot of work by the editors gathering information and hand-coding and deploying each newsletter. In 2015, the digital team is working to migrate newsletters for all brands to RSS feeds and automate the process of deploying.

With the newsletters becoming automated, it will free up more time for the digital group to focus on other projects and eblasts.

401k plan Merger

We would like to remind all employees who have a 401k plan through Transamerica that EPG MEDIA LLC has elected to merge The EPG Media LLC 401(k) Plan (“Plan”) into the ADP TotalSource Retirement Savings Plan (“ADPTS Plan”) effective January 01, 2015. All Plan assets will be transferred to the ADPTS Plan on June 8, 2015.

As a result of this merger, you temporarily will be unable to direct or diversify investments in your individual accounts, obtain a loan from the Plan, or obtain a distribution or withdrawal from the Plan. This period, during which you will be unable to exercise these rights otherwise available under the Plan, is called a “blackout period”. This blackout period is required by the Plans’ record keeper in order to facilitate the transfer of your personal account information and account transaction history from your Plan to the ADPTS Plan. Whether or not you are planning retirement in the near future, we encourage you to carefully consider how this blackout period may affect your retirement planning, as well as your overall financial plan.

It is expected that the blackout period for the Plan will begin on May 29, 2015 and end on or about July 8, 2015. If you have additional questions regarding the plan merger please contact the ADP TotalSource Service Center at (855) 646-7549, and press “0” to speak to a Customer Service Associate (available weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (excluding New York Stock Exchange holidays).

Benefits Open Enrollment

The paperwork is being finalized on this year’s Open Enrollment for medical, dental and vision benefits available to our employees. You should be receiving notification from ADP regarding the plans and premiums, as well as the dates of the election period.

EPG MSI associates who hit eligible service anniversaries during 2014 received cash awards of $100 per year for 3, 5 and 10 years of service, plus each subsequent five-year mark. The following people received service awards this year:

30 Years
Mark Tuttle

Mark Tuttle received his award for 30 years of service.

15 Years
Bernadette Wohlman
John Kmitta

10 Years
Robert Filla
Debbie Rittenberg

Debbie Rittenberg celebrated her 10 years at the company with a toast.

Please see below for three important messages from the EPG Media human resources department. If you have any questions about these or other personnel-related matters, please contact Gerald Winkel (gwinkel@specialtyim.com) or Mary Jo Tomei (mtomei@specialtyim.com).

Protecting Your Information

The American Payroll Association is cautioning employers to advise employees to be mindful of what they post online as it pertains to their jobs and confidential documents. As reported recently by various media, a search of the popular photo sharing site Instagram reveals hundreds of photos of individuals displaying their paychecks. Information included in the photos of these paychecks, such as confidential bank routing numbers and checking account numbers, can provide criminals all the information needed to commit bank fraud and identity theft. Using this information, a crime ring in Minnesota was able to create duplicate checks and steal money from banks and employers. The U.S. Attorney’s office is labeling the incident as the largest identify theft ring ever seen in the state. It is important for employers to educate employees on what is and isn’t acceptable online behavior when it relates directly to their jobs. Posting a photo of a confidential document from a company, such as a paycheck, can have far-reaching repercussions.

New Time Off Request Link

2014 W2 Forms Now Available

Tax forms are now available for all employees on iReports. To access them in My TotalSource, navigate to the Reporting tab and select internet reports in the left navigation. The W2 Forms were also mailed on January 26 to all employees.